A new community garden is being proposed for a lot located at 503 Presidents Street in Gowanus.

Community Board 6 was only made aware of the proposal a few weeks ago when residents between Nevins Street and 3rd Avenue called the district office after they noticed work taking place.

“We inquired further and found out from New York City Housing Prevention and Development that this is a lot that they control,” said CB6 district manager Craig Hammerman. “They were in the process of transferring control from a gardening group that has a lot on Bergen Street.”

Hammerman said that because HPD was treating this as a transfer and not a new garden, “they had no intention of following the procedures that we have grown accustomed to.”

Under normal circumstances, the community board would hear testimony from a community group that wants to create a temporary community garden on unused city-owned land.

“In fact, they [HPD] had no plans of telling us about it,” said Hammerman. “We only found out about it because we called and inquired. This came as news to us.”

The Executive Committee of the board met on Monday, September 9, and went on record asking HPD to treat the garden as if it were a new proposal. The board also requested that the group that will be tending to the garden make a presentation to the Parks Committee.